Painting by Frank B. Mayer, a witness to the negotiations and signing of the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux. Painted in 1885.

The Treaty of Traverse des Sioux of 1851 is an agreement between the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of Dakota and the U.S. government. It transferred ownership of much of southern and western Minnesota from the Dakota to the United States. The treaty is significant in Minnesota's history because, along with similar treaties signed that same year, it opened twenty-four million acres of land to immigration. For the Dakota, these treaties marked another step in the process that saw them increasingly marginalized in and dismissed from land that was their home.

During the early decades of the 1800s, white immigrants began moving west of the St. Croix River into land held by American Indians. Though their numbers were relatively small at first, they were eager to use the land for farming and industry. They wanted to move further west, deeper into Indian lands. Influential men, including Alexander Ramsey and Henry Sibley, convinced the U.S. government to negotiate the purchase of land from American Indian groups living in the region. Through this transaction, Ramsey and Sibley also hoped to recoup debts that fur traders claimed various Indian bands owed to them.

By 1850, both the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of Dakota were in a difficult situation. Animals that they had hunted for food and trade were not abundant enough to support their people anymore. Some groups saw selling their land as a way to gain resources they needed to survive. A land cession treaty, with guaranteed annuity payments, could help them through these tough times and, for some Dakota, offered a way to rebuild their communities.

In July 1851, Sibley, Ramsey, and federal commissioner Luke Lea chose Traverse des Sioux as the site for treaty negotiations. It took several weeks for enough representatives of the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands to arrive. Once they had arrived, however, it did not take long to come to an agreement. The Dakota were in a very weak bargaining position because they believed that if they did not sell their land, the United States would take it. Negotiations took several days, and some Dakota chiefs initially resisted the demands made by the commissioners because they asked for so much. Ultimately however, the chiefs gave in.

On July 23, the Dakota signed the treaty with the government commissioners. The Treaty had three primary results. First, it ceded much of the southern and western portion of Minnesota to the U.S. for about seven and a half cents an acre. Second, it provided for a reservation of ten miles on each side of the Minnesota River. Finally, the treaty arranged for payment to the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands for the land they had ceded. They were to receive a portion of the money immediately. Some funds were set aside for the construction of schools and other services. The rest was to be placed in an account managed by the federal government. From that account, the bands were to receive an annual interest payment in both cash and goods.

After the chiefs had signed two copies of the treaty, they were directed to a third piece of paper held by Joseph R. Brown, a prominent fur trader. All but two of them also signed this agreement. The paper, known as the Traders' Paper, directed the government to pay off various debts claimed by white and mixed-race fur traders using the money owed to the bands from the treaty. This repayment method was common at the time, and the chiefs, given the chance, would perhaps have agreed to it. However, the deceptive methods that Brown and other traders used to get the chiefs to sign angered the Dakota. No one read the paper aloud or translated it for the chiefs, many of whom believed it to be another copy of the treaty. Many Dakota felt cheated by this process, and they added this incident to a growing list of reasons to distrust the federal government.

Following this treaty, Sibley, Ramsey, and Lea negotiated a similar treaty at Mendota with other Dakota bands, which was signed on August 5. In the decade after the signing of these treaties, over 100,000 white immigrants would move to Minnesota to live on the land that the Indians had ceded.

Lass, William E. The Treaty of Traverse Sioux. St. Peter: Nicollet County Historical Society Press, 2011.

Folwell, William Watts. A History of Minnesota. Vol. 1. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1956.

Related Resources

Primary

“Editorial Correspondence.” Minnesota Pioneer, July 10, 1851.

“Editorial Correspondence.” Minnesota Pioneer, July 17, 1851.

“The Sioux Treaty.” Minnesota Pioneer, July 3, 1851

“The Sioux Treaty.” Minnesota Pioneer, August 7, 1851.

“The Sioux Treaty.” Minnesota Pioneer, August 14, 1851.

“The Treaty.” Minnesota Pioneer, July 24, 1851.

“The Treaty with the Sioux.” Minnesota Pioneer, July 31, 1851.

Le Duc, William G., A Brief Sketch and History of the Signing of the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux. St. Peter: Daughters of the American Revolution, 1947.
Description: This pamphlet includes the first-person account of William G. Le Duc, a newspaper reporter who was present at the treaty negotiations.

P643
Frank B. Mayer papers, 1851–1903
Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: This collection contains copies from a diary kept by Mayer during his travels around the time of the Treaty. An artist, Mayer produced paintings of the treaty signing, which he witnessed.

M45
Materials Relating to the 1851 Dakota Treaties, 1849–1952
Manuscripts Collection Microfilm, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: A microfilm copy of materials held by the National Archive, it includes copies of the treaty, the treaty commission’s journal, correspondence between treaty commissioners and the federal government, as well as a report by the commissioners.

Lass, William E. Minnesota: A Bicentennial History. New York: Norton, 1977.

Wingerd, Mary Lethert. North Country: The Making of Minnesota. Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press, 2010.

Web

AV2011.45.18
U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 Oral History Project: Interview with Walter LaBatte, April 28, 2011
Oral History Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paulhttp://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=11007770
Description: Walter "Super" LaBatte, a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Lake Traverse Reservation reflects on the history of the Dakota People. Among the topics discussed are the Treaties of 1851.

AV2011.45.18
U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 Oral History Project: Interview with Willard Manderfeld, August 11, 2011
Oral History Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paulhttp://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=11008045
Description: Willard Manderfeld, a resident of New Ulm, discusses his ancestors involvement in the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. He reflects upon the Treaties of 1851.

Turning Point

Signed on July 23, 1851, the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux cedes several million acres of land from the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of Dakota to the United States in exchange for a reservation and annual annuity payments.

Chronology

1805

Zebulon Pike induces two Dakota men to cede nine square miles of territory to the United States. This cession includes much of present-day Minneapolis and Saint Paul

1819

Construction of Fort Snelling begins.

1825

Treaty at Prairie du Chien: the United States attempts to settle disputes between the Dakota and Ojibwe by setting boundaries between the two tribes. Though unsuccessful at bringing peace, the boundaries demarcated by this treaty, along with another treat

1837

In Washington, D.C., United States' representatives convince members of the Mdewakanton Dakota, who they had brought east for treaty negotiations, to cede their lands east of the Mississippi River for money and annuity payments.

1851

The signing of the Treaty of Traverse Sioux between the U.S. government and Sisseton and Wahpeton Dakota. The treaty cedes much of Southern Minnesota to the United States.

1852

Dakota leaders write to the U.S. government to protest the payments required of the Traders' Paper.

1857

With the new lands made available by treaties earlier in the decade, the non-Indian population of the Minnesota Territory grows by almost 100,000 by 1857.

1863

The U.S. government responds to the U.S.-Dakota War by waiving all of its obligations in the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux even though the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of Dakota largely stayed out of the War or assisted white settlers.

1867

Many Sisseton and Wahpeton Dakota are moved from Minnesota to new reservations in the Dakota Territories.